Alan Gerstle > Recent Status Updates

Please note that there are two books with the title Picasso's War.

The first page is so brilliant that I am hesitant to read more for fear that I will experience toxic aestheticism.

Since I've completed about one-third of one percent of the book, I'm confident I will appreciate the entire volume. The book is the basis for the Netflix-produced Australian film entitled 'The Stranger,' perhaps the best film I've seen in years.

I saw a 'press conference' conducted by Vargas Llosa on youtube. it was to provide an opportunity for the Latin American public to learn about the book. It struck me that Latin American journalists may be as dimwitted as those in the U.S. The first question was to inquire what percentage of the book was fact and what percentage was fiction, as though novelists used a calculator when writing.

David goodis is is an exceptional writer of 'noir' novels.

Quite Raymond Carvery. Johnson's last grouping of stories. A lot of people dead and dying. So what else is new?

Second time I'm reading it. I guess it didn't make much of impression the first time.

Mexico has an extremely complex history. This anthology has primary source material that helps unpack 400 years of it. That a lot of unpacking. While a good introduction, it could have a "rabbit hole" effect. There is so much to study and understand. Unlike U.S. history, there are many convoluted threads and false starts in Mexico 's identity as a country.